Gabriel's Mate by Folsom, Tina (read this if .txt) 📕

never forget that, trust me.” He let his fingers trail to the juncture of her thighs. She opened for him without coaxing. “But I want you to feel the same way when I’m inside you.”

She was wet when he slipped a finger inside her. Her lids closed halfway at his action. “Mmm,” she hummed.

Gabriel’s cell phone rang. “Damn!” Letting his finger slip from her tight sheath, he reached for it and looked at the number. It was a number he’d memorized over the last few days. “Sorry, baby, I’ve got to take that.” He noticed Maya’s disappointed look.

He flipped the phone open. “Francine.”

“Hey vamp-Gabriel,” she corrected herself. “We need to meet.”

“Now?” He swept a long look over Maya’s naked body.

“Now. I’ve found it. So if you want to know what ails you, you’d better come now before I change my mind.”

Excitement coursed through him. She knew what was wrong with him? “Where are you?”

“At the lab.” She gave him an address in Laurel Heights, only minutes from Samson’s house.

“I’ll be there shortly.”

As he flipped the phone shut, he looked at Maya. She didn’t look at him, and he sensed her frustration. In fact, now that he thought of it, he could sense a lot of things about her, not quite as strong as what he knew a blood-bond would do, but a strong connection nevertheless. He wondered whether the fact that she’d only recently fed from him did that and his own blood created that connection, or whether it was the fact that they’d had sex.

“The witch knows what’s wrong with me and wants to see me.”

A quiet sigh came from Maya. “Maybe there’s nothing wrong with you. Gabriel, I really don’t mind it.”

“But I do. I don’t want to be a monster anymore.”

“You don’t look like a monster to me.” She wanted to keep him, deformity or not. She knew not every woman would be this welcoming, especially not a human. But if he had his deformity removed, what would stop him from going out there and looking for a human woman?

p. Maya closed her eyes, hating herself for her selfish thoughts. How could she even contemplate stopping him from finding a cure? Had she lost all good in her? Was she prepared to do anything just so he’d stay with her and wouldn’t find another lover?

“What’s wrong?”

She opened her eyes and looked into his confused face. Sure, he’d told her he loved her, but that was in the heat of passion. It didn’t count.

Men said a lot of things when their dick took over. Vampire surely weren’t any different from other men.

“Listen, Gabriel, I want you to know that it’s okay. You don’t have to get it removed on my account. I’m okay with it, really. It doesn’t bother me. In fact, I’d rather you didn’t do anything about it.”

A stunned look traveled over his features. “Maya,” he urged her.

“Why would you not want this for me? I thought you and I had something here.”

She swallowed hard, but couldn’t stop her next words from passing over her lips. “Once you’re normal, you can have any woman you want.

You could have a human woman, not an infertile vampire. So you can have children.”

Gabriel cursed. “God damn it. Who’s been planting those ideas in your head?”

Maya averted her eyes. She’d made him angry. “Yvette.”

“I wish Yvette would keep her big trap shut and not talk about things she knows nothing about.” He ran his hand through his long hair and sighed. “God, Maya, Yvette doesn’t know what I want. Do I want a child? Of course, but…I mean, you…” He shook his head. “This is a talk that’ll take a lot longer than one minute. There’s so much I have to explain to you. But I have to go now. I promise you, as soon as I’m back, we’ll talk about this. About you and me. About us. Will you give me the time I need to see the witch before we talk?”

“Okay,” she quickly said. “Go.” She wanted to believe that he loved and wanted her, but he’d said he wanted a child. A child she could never give him.

He pressed a hard kiss on her lips before he pulled away. “I’ll have Yvette come to protect you while I’m gone. Carl is here. He’ll take care of you while you’re waiting for Yvette. You can trust her, despite the things she says.” Then he dressed faster than she’d ever seen any man dress and was gone just as quickly.

Thomas’ fingers flew over the keyboard as he entered commands into it. Hacking into any company’s systems was second nature to him.

p. He and Eddie had gotten interrupted earlier by the search for Maya, but now he was back at the computer, finally hacking into the telephone company’s systems. The delay had cost them.

“Can you teach me that?” Eddie asked from behind him, standing entirely too close. Over the last few weeks, Eddie’s habit of sticking close to him had started to rattle his nerves.

Thomas was sure, Eddie wasn’t even aware of it, for all Eddie seemed to do was look up to him. After Eddie had been turned only a short few months ago, Thomas had been assigned to become his mentor.

Out of practicality, he’d allowed the kid to move in with him.

“I’ll give you a crash course later, but I think Gabriel wants this data quickly.”

A list popped up on the screen. “That’s Maya’s phone records.

Gabriel thinks that the rogue might have called her, or that she called him.”

Eddie’s arm reached over his shoulder and pointed at the screen. His scent drifted into Thomas’ nose. “But that’s just phone numbers. How are we going to find out who these people are?”

“I’m cross referencing the list with phone books and listings by the cell phone companies.” Thomas typed in a command and hit the enter button. The screen flashed in response and split into two halves. Names started running along on the